Blog 3 Topic 3

            According to Webster’s Dictionary, the definition of insanity is: a severely disordered state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder; extreme folly or unreasonableness. Basically, the dictionary only defines insanity to be a specific mental disorder or someone incapable of showing any reason. However, insanity does not only have to be associated with a mental disorder, but can in fact be linked to stress, anxiety, or a serious event. College students may be under loads of stress and may begin to question their decisions about college and their future. This stress level can be on par with mental patients in an institution. College students tend to have high levels of insanity due to all the assignments and work handed to them, and also because of the short amount of time they have to complete these assignments. Meanwhile, people with anxiety constantly feel that something is about to go wrong in their life at any given moment, which can be considered insane. However, with the proper medication this feeling of anxiety can be removed and the person can no longer be considered insane. Also, if a person were to go through a life changing event, for example a horrible car accident, then they may come out of the accident as a changed person. The event could cause them to have a mental break down every time they sit in a car, which can be linked to insanity from a past experience insane, not from a mental disorder. Moreover, for some cultures insanity can also be linked to life decisions, such as the Mexican culture. A practice that is no longer followed in the Mexican culture required a woman to be married and bear children by the age of 20. However, if she were to instead turn away from the culture she would be deemed insane. Insanity can be linked to culture or other reasons connecting to a person, but what really defines insanity is when the person themselves realize their own insanity and attempt to help themselves. By helping themselves shows how the person understands their own problem and only wish to help themselves and those they know.

          Blanche can be considered insane because she went through a life changing event and still has not learned to cope with the drastic change in her life. Instead of having a mental disorder insanity, Blanche herself has an emotional insanity. Since she got divorced from her gay husband and lost her job and fortune, she begins to hallucinate and greatly depend on her sister, Stella, for support. Blanche admits to this dependency by stating, “Whoever you are- I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” Blanche herself understands that she needs others for support, which is something an insane person may admit when they themselves understand their own insanity. Her emotional insanity also leads her to create a fake person for her to fall in love with and to attempt to go out with. For example, towards the end of the play Blanche believes she is about to meet her rich friend Shep Huntleigh, who does not exist at all. She, instead, is greeted by the Doctor to whom Blanche says, “You are not the gentleman I was expecting/ That man isn’t Shep Huntleigh.”  At the end of the play, Blanche understands and accepts her own insanity, causing her to willingly leave with the doctor, who is a stranger to Blanche.